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Gian Galeazzo Riario-Sforza1, Cristoforo Incorvaia1, Fulvia Paterniti1, Laura Pessina1, Roberta Caligiuri1, Chiara Pravettoni1, Fabiano Di Marco2, Stefano Centanni21Pulmonary Rehabilitation, Istituti Clinici di Perfezionamento, Milan, Italy; 2Unit of Respiratory Medicine, University of Milan, San Paolo Hospital, Milan, ItalyBackground: Pulmonary rehabilitation (PR) is recognized as an evidence-based treatment in improving dyspnea and quality of life in patients with COPD. We evaluated the number needed to treat (NNT) to achieve an increase in physical capacity, as defined by a significant improvement in the six-minute walk test (6MWT) in patients with COPD undergoing PR.Methods: The study enrolled 284 patients aged 41 to 86 years (mean age 69.4 years) divided into two groups: a study group (222 patients) undergoing a PR program, and a control group (62 patients) treated only with drugs. The study group included patients with COPD divided in four subgroups according to GOLD stages.Results: In the study group, 142 out of 222 patients (64%) had an increase of at least 54 m in the 6MWT following PR versus 8 out of 62 patients (13%) in the control group after the same time interval. The NNT in the overall study group was 2; the same NNT was obtained in GOLD stages 2, 3, and 4, but was 8 in stage 1.Conclusions: PR is highly effective in improving the exercise capacity of patients with COPD, as demonstrated by a valuable NNT, with better results in patients with a more severe disease.Keywords: chronic obstructive lung disease, exercise capacity, number needed to treat, pulmonary rehabilitation, six-minute walk test

Paolo Scarpazza1, Cristoforo Incorvaia2, Giuseppe di Franco1, Stefania Raschi1, Pierfranco Usai1, Monica Bernareggi1, Cristiano Bonacina1, Chiara Melacini1, Silvia Vanni1, Serena Bencini1, Chiara Pravettoni2, Giuseppe Di Cara3, Mona-Rita Yacoub4, Gian Galeazzo Riario-Sforza2, Enrico Guffanti5, Walter Casali11Divisione di Broncopneumotisiologia, Ospedale Civile, Vimercate, Italy; 2Pulmonary rehabilitation, Istituti Clinici di Perfezionamento, Milan, Italy; 3University Department of Medical and Surgical Specialties and Public Health, Perugia, Italy; 4Allergy and Immunology Unit, IRCCS San Raffaele Hospital, Milan, Italy; 5Pulmonary rehabilitation, INRCA, Casatenovo, ItalyAbstract: Noninvasive mechanical ventilation (NIMV) is effective in the treatment of patients with acute respiratory failure (ARF). It proved to reduce the need of endotracheal intubation (ETI), the incidence of ETI-associated pneumonia, and mortality compared to nonventilated patients. A particular aspect concerns the outcome of NIMV in patients referring to an emergency room (ER) for ARF, and with a do-not-intubate (DNI) status due to advanced age or critical conditions. The aim of our study is to assess the outcome of NIMV in a group of elderly patients with acute hypercapnic ARF who had a DNI status. An overall number of 62 subjects (30 males, 32 females, mean age 81 ± 4.8 years, range 79–91 years) referred to our semi-intensive respiratory department were enrolled in the study. The underlying diseases were severe chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) in 50/62 subjects, restrictive thoracic disorders in 7/62 subjects, and multiorgan failure in 5/62 subjects. Fifty-four/62 patients were successfully treated with NIMV while 2/62 did not respond to NIMV and were therefore submitted to ETI (one survived). Among NIMV-treated patients, death occurred in 6 patients after a mean of 9.9 days; the overall rate of NIMV failure was 12.9%. Negative prognostic factors for NIMV response proved to be: an older age, a low Glasgow Coma Score, a high APACHE score at admission, a high PaCO2 after 12 hours and a low pH both after 1 and 12 hours of NIMV. We conclude that elderly patients with acute hypercapnic ARF with a DNI status can be successfully treated by NIMV.Keywords: acute respiratory failure, noninvasive mechanical ventilation, endotracheal intubation, do-not-intubate, COPD, oxygen therapy

Cristoforo Incorvaia1, Gian Galeazzo Riario-Sforza1, Chiara Pravettoni1, Mona-Rita Yacoub2, Franco Frati31Pulmonary Rehabilitation Unit, ICP Hospital, Milan, Italy; 2Allergy and Rheumatology Unit, IRCCS San Raffaele Hospital, Milan, Italy; 3Institute of Pediatrics, Department of Medical and Surgical specialty and Public Health, University of Perugia, Policlinico Monteluce, Perugia, ItalyAbstract: Disease exacerbations are an important aspect of COPD, because they affect its course and are associated with higher lung function decline. On the other hand, data obtained by biopsies have demonstrated that the progression of COPD is related to an increasing impairment of small airways. We sought to evaluate the small airway impairment (FEF25–75) in two groups of COPD patients (each group had 37 subjects) in relation to the frequency of exacerbations and the effectiveness of treatment with tiotropium bromide on the small airway impairment. The mean number of exacerbations was 3.6/year and 1.38/year in frequent and in infrequent exacerbators, respectively (p < 0.001). The mean value of FEF25–75 at baseline was 624 mL and 865 mL in frequent and in infrequent exacerbators respectively (p = 0.002). The changes in respiratory parameters versus baseline showed increases in mean FEV1, FVC, and FEF25–75 in both groups but only the increase in FEF25–75 in frequent exacerbators was statistically significantly (p = 0.013). During the 3-month period of the study the mean number of exacerbations was 0.66 in frequent and 0.12 in infrequent exacerbators. These findings indicate that COPD patients with frequent exacerbations have a higher impairment of small airways. Treatment with tiotropium in COPD subjects with frequent exacerbations proved to be effective in improving small airway impairment.Keywords: COPD, exacerbations, small airways, FEF25–75, tiotropium

The international guidelines on chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) recommend inhaled bronchodilators for maintenance treatment of the disease. These drugs include β2-agonists and muscarinic antagonists, which are both available as short-acting agents (to be used as needed for dyspnea) and long-acting agents. To the latter belong salmeterol and formoterol (long-acting β2-agonists) and indacaterol, vilanterol and olodaterol (very long-acting β2-agonist) as β2-agonists, and tiotropium, aclidinium and glycopyrronium bromide as long-acting muscarinic antagonists. The efficacy and safety of indacaterol and glycopyrronium as monotherapies has been demonstrated in several controlled trials. However, in some patients with moderate-to-severe COPD, symptoms are poorly controlled by bronchodilator monotherapy; in these cases the addition of a second bronchodilator from a different pharmacological class may be beneficial. Here we review the evidence from published randomized trials concerning the efficacy and safety of the once-daily fixed-dose dual bronchodilator combining indacaterol and glycopyrronium.